“You may have heard of a small party that is going around saying that they are going to vote us out of government in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro,” said Maimane at the Mpumalanga provincial Congress in Secunda of Saturday.

“Now, friends, I can’t explain that thinking to you. It is madness. It is insane. But people must ask them what they are thinking. And they must explain to the voters and the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay why they are handing the city back to the corrupt ANC,” he said.

Earlier in the week, EFF leader Julius Malema said he was determined to “punish” the party in Nelson Mandela Bay for rejecting its motion to allow a constitutional review on land expropriation without compensation.

Speaking on Wednesday at the party’s public healthcare campaign in Soweto, he had said: “We need to take that away from them, to teach them a lesson to make them appreciate that we mean business when it comes to land.”

His comments came after the party’s motion for the amendment of the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation received overwhelming support.

The EFF motion, with an ANC amendment, was supported by the majority of MPs on Tuesday and paves the way for a review of the Constitution on land expropriation.

Malema said the party would bring a motion of no confidence against Trollip in retaliation.

In retaliation, the DA said it would report Malema to the Equality Court for what it deemed to be hate speech and incitement of violence.

The DA quoted him as saying: “[W]e are going to remove a mayor of PE… [we] are going for your white man in PE. We are going to cut the throat.”

Maimane said the DA had won the most votes of any party in Mandela Bay, because the people were sick and tired of a corrupt ANC government that “literally stole so much from the city, that there was nothing left.”

Maimane said in the 18 months the DA-led coalition was in power, they had put Nelson Mandela Bay back on its feet again.

“Most importantly, we cut off the corrupt money taps, and the ANC is furious about it,” he said.

“So, they want the City back. And who is going to give it back to them? None other than the EFF,” he said.

Maimane said the ANC was so desperate to get back control of the coffers, that they would even let the EFF dictate who the next mayor would be.

“How far the once-mighty ANC has fallen. It is now shivering in its boots. Pathetic,” he said.